What Ho...A Rat!!

Nonrequired Reading: "Introducing the Kentucky Canuck"

Rey and Mikey sit down with scholar, writer, and teacher Paul Franz to discuss Shakespeare's Coriolanus and its unlikely parallels with First Blood. The boys imagine Glenn Danzig arguing with his Homeowner's Association, and a definitive answer is reached about whether Hamlet or Coriolanus would win in a fight.

S4E11 THE RAMBO OF ROME, "Don't Tread on Wombs"

This is the last episode in THE RAMBO OF ROME, which covers the end of Act Five. The women of Rome arrive, and Coriolanus' mother tries to end his rampage with an epic guilt trip. Will she succeed? Will he cry at the end like John J. Rambo? Also, Rey recalls an old friend who he hasn't seen in years.

S4E10 THE RAMBO OF ROME, "Daddy Issues"

In the penultimate episode of the season, Rey and Mikey enter Act 5 of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, and witness the Roman nobility scrambling to save their city as a war-mad Coriolanus bears down on them with his new Volscian allies. The moral of the story: treat your veterans well, or they may just return to destroy the nation they once helped protect. Or maybe the moral is: democracy doesn't work. Or maybe it's: always listen to your mother. We're still trying to figure out exactly what this play is about. But it sure has a lot in common with First Blood, that's all we know for certain.

S4E9 THE RAMBO OF ROME, "Brokeback Martius"

Things are getting hot and heavy in Antium, as Coriolanus has a surprisingly homoerotic bro-down with his arch-nemesis Tullus Aufidius. After joining forces, Coriolanus leads the Volscian army on the warparth toward Rome, and his previous friends and enemies scramble to do damage control. This episode covers the end of Act 4.

S4E8 THE RAMBO OF ROME, "Roman Roadhouse"

Coriolanus faces the tribunes and the rabble they represent, only to be banished from his beloved Rome. The end of Act 3 and beginning of Act 4 are discussed, along with digressions about hot dogs, The Road Warrior, and, once again, Warrior Milk.